Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#1

Post by s_extra_s » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 2:37 PM UTC

I am 19, student and javascript developer, I am currently the only one working on a small developer tool that has become quite popular but I am getting overwhelmed and having hard time managing everything. All the bug reports, support tickets, continuing my bachelors, managing sales and all has become a chore, I am currently not sure about solid business strategy and I am only earning around 4-5K per month so I can not hire anyone to work with me. Any advice would be helpful.

Sorry for my terrible english.

Re: Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#2

Post by Joona » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 2:45 PM UTC

Do you have a forum for the users? The amount of help your users can provide to each other is massive.

Re: Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#3

Post by davidw » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 2:45 PM UTC

4-5 K is more than enough to hire someone to help with support part-time, via something like oDesk. As a bonus, you could probably hire someone who speaks English as their native language.

Re: Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#4

Post by s_extra_s » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 2:48 PM UTC

Joona wrote: post #2

Do you have a forum for the users? The amount of help your users can provide to each other is massive.

Yes, I have a forum but can't reply often because I am busy working on coding part.

Re: Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#5

Post by Raphmedia » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 2:50 PM UTC

Could you find a friend that would be willing to split time with you? Not an employee but a partner. Sure, you will lose half the profit (make sure you put it in writing that the situation is temporary), but it is better than being completely overwhelmed.

Re: Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#6

Post by Joona » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 2:53 PM UTC

s_extra_s wrote: post #4

Joona wrote: post #2

Do you have a forum for the users? The amount of help your users can provide to each other is massive.

Yes, I have a forum but can't reply often because I am busy working on coding part.

Do you direct users there for troubleshooting etc?

Re: Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#7

Post by madaxe_again » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 2:56 PM UTC

4-5k a month is more than enough to make a hire. Think of it this way:

What is your time worth to you?

Would you rather work your ass off and make 5k, or have a sane workload, make 2k for a while, which then rises as you have adequate internal infrastructure to support growing sales and users?

It sounds like you have a good thing going, and I'd strongly recommend at looking to get another pair of hands involved - or close it down.

Re: Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#8

Post by adventured » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 3:01 PM UTC

Recruit someone, on a contracting basis, for $15 / hour, to do support responses. Pay that person 70 or 80 hours per month. Adjust the hourly as desirable to get the kind of person you need.

Have that person also build a very comprehensive FAQ, if one does not exist. They can also process any time consuming sales routines for you (refunds, billing questions, whatever). If they're any good at basic sales, you can give them a commission for selling which might get their income up to near full-time after a while.

Begin slightly restricting what kind of support tickets you'll handle (specifically begin to make it abundantly clear to users that if their question is in the FAQ, all you're going to get is pointed to the FAQ; ratchet that up to whatever degree is necessary).

Re: Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#9

Post by mukesh2687 » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 3:04 PM UTC

Hey, I can help on the communication part and managing the forum. Rest assured, I won't charge anything. Let me know your email, I will get in touch.

Re: Help Me HN: I am getting overwhelmed

#10

Post by jurihandl » Tue, Feb 24, 2015, 3:05 PM UTC

4K is enough to hire someone. So you're a student and you're working on this side project. There are many others like you who don't want to work full time but have some time left while studying. Maybe you should get another student or basically any person who fits your needs and wants to work 15-20h a week? You you don't have to pay them as much and you get more time for the core programming and studying.

By the way: What tool are you working on?